Polugaevsky has been allowed to place his pawns three abreast. But Kortschnoi starts to attack them immediately. In fact when he plays 3...Bb7 Polugaevsky already seems puzzled about how to protect e4. He wants to avoid Nc3 owing to ...Bb4. So he plays Qc2, and may have been a little surprised by Kortschnoi's 4...Qh4!

Howard: Perhaps, but then Polugaevsky ended up with a passed pawn anyway within just a few moves---the b-pawn. Perhaps he thought the passed b-pawn would be stronger than a passed a-pawn.

According to Chess Life & Review, not to mention Kasparov's MGP, Korchnoi had pretty much a won game by about the 25th move. But he made a careless mistake somewhere after that, and now Polugaevsky had a drawn endgame...but then just a few moves into the second session (The game was adjourned around the 41st move.), Polu made a very careless slip in this drawish position, and Korchnoi now had an easy win.

SpamIAm: Actually, Korchnoi blundered much earlier also, on his 21st move, hastily capturing a pawn with 21...Qxh2? This allowed the rook invasion 22.Re7! which gave Polugaevsky drawing chances. Essential was the interpolation 21...Qg1+ 22.Kd2 and only then 22...Qxh2. If now 23.Re7 then 23...Qxf2+ wins a second pawn.

Toribio3: Move#45 Re3 by Black was the game changer. It cut off the White King from being active participant in the critical phase of the end game. The great Korchnoi is an expert in this type of rook and pawn end game.

Howard: Not to sound picky, but the real "game changer" was 45.Rc8+??. It turned an easily drawn position into a dead loss.

Mednis made the astute observation that this blunder came just after the adjournment, and that it made one wonder what Polug and Company had been doing the night before. Living it up at a local bar ?

NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply.
Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous,
and 100% free--plus, it
entitles you to features otherwise unavailable.
Pick your username now and join the chessgames community!
If you already have an account, you should
login now.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.

No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts.

No personal attacks against other members.

Nothing in violation of United States law.

No posting personal information of members.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform an administrator.

NOTE: Keep all discussion on the topic of this page.
This forum is for this specific game and nothing else. If you want to discuss chess in general, or
this site, you might try the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages
posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.